Dempsey & Halo, the cutest littermates!
Best. Day. Ever. We’ve probably said that before. But today was pretty darn amazing.
Today was the last day of our whirlwind trip to the midwest. We drove to Des Moines on Thursday after Jenny got off work. We stayed at a really nice hotel — the Ramada Tropics Resort and Conference center. If you are ever driving through it’s one of the nicer hotels we have found that takes dogs 🙂
Friday, we woke up early to head for Minnesota and the Twin Cities Vizsla Club Specialty. We love the TCVC specialties and were so excited to find one that worked for our schedule this year. Great group of people and they do an awesome job with trophies! We managed to get into town a little early so we hit the Battle Creek Dog Park…it was awesome! They had 35 fenced in acres and several lakes (Halo found all of them) and we were able to get in an hour long romp! Then it was back to the hotel for a quick check-in and shower, and then we suited up and headed to the show.
No big love for us today, but Indy and Karma both won their classes (Veteran Dog & Field Bitch) so they made it in for the final cut. Their wins won them each a very nice dog bowl filled with treats and toys, which was perfect since we forgot to pack our bowls! Thank you to Mark & Becky Smith and Lois Almendinger for sponsoring the trophies. The REALLY exciting part of the day was getting to witness Halo’s brother Dempsey finish his Championship! They just turned one on Tuesday, and we are so happy he finished not only so young, but at a specialty! Just thrilled we could be here for it 🙂
After the specialty, we joined the TCVC for their banquet and meeting. AND Jenny is super excited about our new steel Vizsla garden stake we picked up from Deb Pederson-Koch. It’s going to look amazing in our yard, we’ll have to post pictures soon. Saturday morning, we found a great school with THREE soccer fields and were able to burn off Halo’s zoomies before she showed. Halo was our only entry today and she won her class, but didn’t do anything in the winner’s ring. After the show we did a little shopping and then headed out for Kansas.
And this is where Jenny’s genuis comes into play. Rather than drive all 14 hours after showing in Minnesota on Sunday morning, she convinced Marc that staying in Topeka would be a nice half-way stop. There just happened to be a show there, we could show quickly on Sunday morning, and then hit the road. Little did we know the surprises we were in for today!
First we were THRILLED it was a major in girls…it has been hard to come by in Colorado and Halo needs to get that second major checked off her goal list 🙂 However, there were FOUR absentees today! Totally broke the major 🙁 Oh well, Halo isn’t singled out yet and could still use some more singles. We were pretty excited when Halo went Winners Bitch, but nothing could prepare us for the excitement of Breed. Judge Ann Yuhasz (English Setter breeder) stunned us by pulling out Indy and his handler Trent Wilkinson for Best of Breed, followed by Halo and Marc for Best of Opposite Sex over two bitch Specials! By winning over the specials, Halo picked up a **3 POINT MAJOR** and Indy’s Best of Breed win was good for a Grand Champion **5 POINT MAJOR**!! So happy, happy, happy!
Indy looked great in the huge sporting group, but didn’t make the top 4. No biggie, just getting to see him show in the group ring was wonderful! So very proud of our kids today!
With Halo’s major we get to cross a goal off the list, and we are adding on her Championship. Also updated with Gunner’s recent Beginner Novice title!
Our updated goal list:
-Karma’s MXJ title — DONE!
-Novice Fast title on Gunner & Karma — DONE!
-Gunner’s OA & AXJ titles — DONE!
-Get Halo’s majors — DONE!
-Companion Dog on Indy — DONE!
-Versatility Certificate on Indy — DONE!
-Beginner Novice on Gunner — DONE!
-Rally Novice on Halo
-Rally Excellent on Karma
-Companion Dog on Gunner
-Junior Hunter on Halo
-Senior Hunter on Gunner & Karma
-Versatile Certificate on Gunner
-Grand Championship on Indy
-Gunner’s AX title
-Karma’s MX title
-Get Karma qualified for AKC Agility Nationals
-Get Halo’s Championship
*We also have a few stretch goals we are keeping to ourselves for now 🙂
